Chapter 49 #2
She also didn’t want to fan the very awkward fire. “You are very beautiful, though. Do you have a designer or stylist?”
Juliana tilted her head, as if trying to pick apart every piece of Sonnet, before laughing. “Aw, you are like a cute little puppy. Which, let me be the first to congratulate you all on your puppy. Buying a pet together is very big and exciting.”
“How the fuck do you know we got a puppy?” Kai growled, stepping slightly in front of Sonnet.
Jude and Felix got closer, as did the crowd, everyone looking with greedy curiosity.
This was no longer a fun evening.
“Ah, cussing at a charity event? Not very cool of you, Kai.”
“Answer him,” Felix growled, a sound Sonnet hadn’t heard from him before.
“Oh, please. The paparazzi write cheap stories for a reason. They jump on any word they can find. The real journalists wait and watch, and I just so happen to know one of them who spotted your arrival home with her. Your sweet little omega. And fated mate I’ve heard?
Well,” she clapped her hands together, “I’m sure you’ve all spilled your little secrets since you’re such a perfect match.
The boys have told you about all their little red flags, I hope?
Oh, girlie. It would just hurt my heart to hear if they’d never been open with you. ”
“I’m sure it would,” Sonnet whispered, squeezing Kai’s hand and resting her other on Felix. “However, we’ve all been happily transparent with each other and have worked really hard at building a healthy foundation for the success of our pack.”
“Transparent? Would you really use a word as big as that one?”
“What do you mean?”
Juliana shrugged. “Nothing, girlie. I’m sure these alphas have opened up. After all, their history is, as you’ve said, smeared all over. It’s hard to be mysterious. Although I think mysterious would be a perfect word for you.”
“Me?” Sonnet felt her stomach tighten.
What is she getting at?
I don’t know, but I don’t like it.
“Playing dumb is so high school. After all, you must know how secretive your past is. I know, I know. Snooping is so high school, too, but can you blame an ex for being interested?” Juliana looked at the crowd, some of them rejoining the festivities, but others lingered to get the scoop.
Having people watch them seemed to turn her on, and her eyes glowed with an intent Sonnet didn’t like.
“At first, the only thing I could uncover was that you were abandoned by your mother, left to the care of your father, who already had a wife and family of his own. I can’t blame you, however.
Being an affair baby is a heavy burden.”
Guests around the room gasped, their eyes widening.
This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Tonight was about their pack, about the charity. It shouldn’t be about this.
Sonnet lost her voice.
If Juliana knew this much, what else did she know?
Nothing! She can’t know about our birth mother. Dad erased all the history.
Nothing can be erased 100%.
Her omega said nothing, but her heart felt heavy before dropping into the pit of her stomach.
None of this was supposed to go this way.
Jude’s hands rested on her hips, but what Sonnet really wanted was to disappear.
Zayden gently held a hand up towards Juliana’s direction.
“Stop this,” he growled, but wasn’t asserting enough dominance to trigger Juliana’s omega side to submit.
He was giving her a chance. “Sonnet has taken great care to tell us about her family. You come here now to undermine her is not just cruel but also embarrassing. Go to your plus one and leave us be. We don’t have to be hostile towards one another. ”
“Don’t we though?”
“No. We don’t.”
Juliana paused for a moment, but the vibe of the room was intoxicating, and she was too far gone in her malice to stop now.
“I’m here as a friend. After all, I know it is partially my fault your career is held by a thread, but when the truth about Sonnet comes out, none of you may have a career period. ”
Jude frowned. “We already know about Sonnet. We’ve accepted it, so why can’t you? Why can’t everyone else?”
Juliana’s eyes landed on Sonnet. “Do they know, girlie? You know, about the part that your dad didn’t just have an affair with some chick but paid for her time. That’s right.” Julianna’s voice got louder. “Sonnet’s mother—”
“Don’t,” Sonnet choked.
“Was a prostitute!”
Everything stopped.
Time and her heartbeat. It was all frozen.
And then everything came crashing down.
All their eyes turned to her, even her alphas. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t meet their gazes, but she felt it. Felt Jude’s hands slipped from her waist. Felt Kai’s hand drop from hers. Heard the footsteps Felix and Zayden took backwards, like they had been struck.
She felt like she had been struck, too. Was she bleeding? Was there proof of this pain?
Juliana took a long sip from her glass of wine. “I was right. No one knew that crucial little part.”
“Sonnet,” one of her alphas choked, but she couldn’t distinguish who. She hardly even noticed the tears streaming down her face.
“Why,” she gasped. “Why would you tell them?”
Juliana shrugged her shoulders, her snarky expression shaking slightly. “They deserved to know.”
“I deserved to be the one to tell them!” Sonnet’s voice was sharp and intense. She held her stomach.
Why couldn’t she breathe?
No, don’t look at me!
Sonnet, her omega whined.
“And would you have? I mean, come on. I wouldn’t want my alphas to know that my mother was a whore.”
“Do not call her that! Don’t you dare call her that!”
“What would you call a woman who slept around for years only to die from AIDS? These men deserve to know. What if you have the disease?”
“What did you just say?” Sonnet choked; her words slurred by heavy emotions ready to spill. “What did you fucking say?”
“Sonnet—”
She pushed away the hands trying to calm her down.
No.
No.
Please, no.
Juliana sneered. “I’m saying you could have AIDS.”
“No. No, what did you say about my mother? She’s not…
She didn’t…” Sonnet’s fingers tangled in her hair and pulled.
She looked around for anything. An exit to run to, her sister to cry to, her birth mother she’s been searching for in every face she’s passed.
“Oh, God. She’s not dead. You’re a liar.
She’s not dead! Tell me she’s not dead. Please.
Please!” She sobbed, falling to her knees and the world falling on top of her.
Everything happened too quickly.
There was yelling, hands lifting her, the flash of the camera, the car ride home, and then she was in bed, but nothing felt real.
No. This couldn’t be real.
Her mother couldn’t be dead.
She was living the perfect life on a beach somewhere with all the money she’d earned, finally living at peace and in style and the way she should. She was happy and beautiful, and the sun was shining.
If she were dead, then she’d never feel sunshine again.
I’m never going to see her again.